Between Dusk & Dawn
by LivinJgrl123
Summary: *human A/U* High school, for the insomniac Cora Hale, was supposed to be boring. Uneventful. Predictable. But then she had to meet Derek's odd group of friends when she was forced to move to Beacon Hills from Los Angeles, and move in with Derek and Peter. And then high school didn't turn out to be as boring (or as bad) as she'd expected. *COMPLETE*
1. The Prologue

**I own nada. I've always kind of been "meh" about Cora's character. In the most recent episode of Teen Wolf, "The Overlooked", I found that I wanted to write something about her. So here it is, a new story, with humans and humans only, aaaaaand there will be a few more adjustments. So, imma gonna stop chatting now and letcha read.**

**Cheers, yeah?**

* * *

_The Prologue_

* * *

"Cora, aren't you excited? You get to live with Derek."

Cora lifted her eyes from her computer screen and turned her head to look give her older sister Laura, who was standing in the doorway of her bedroom, a glare before turning back to the email she was writing, since she hadn't been provided with a phone, because Laura sucked sometimes. Especially at times when she denied her little sister her own cell phone (which was a lot of times).

Laura hadn't missed the bags under the other Hale's eyes, or the fact that the clock next to her on the desk said that it was two-thirty in the morning. "Cora," she prodded, taking a step into the room, stopping to cross her arms over her chest. "I asked you if - "

"No."

Laura frowned. "I know you had this plan, for high school - for it to be normal and bland and - "

"I don't want to move." Cora's voice was flat, and she shut her laptop so she could face her sister fully, her body twisting in the wooden chair as she did so.

"You can still visit." Laura didn't look sorry in the slightest, which only made Cora glare even more. Laura tried not to grin; the famous Hale glare didn't work on other Hales, as much as she sometimes wished it was - she and her baby sister.

"I _said_ I don't need to move."

"I know," Laura shrugged. "But we've already decided that you're going to be living with Peter and Derek, in Beacon Hills."

Cora narrowed her eyes. "But I don't _need_ to move."

"Actually, in Beacon Hills, at the hospital - "

"So this is about my sleeping problems, right?" Her tone turned from flat to low, and accusatory. Laura shrugged again.

"You haven't slept for a night in . . . well, for a long time. Wouldn't you like to be like normal people, and sleep during the night, instead of catching naps during the day? In class, too?"

Cora slowly shook her head. "Treatments have never worked before," she mumbled, standing up and shuffling past her older sister towards the bathroom they both shared in Laura's apartment. "Besides," she added, her voice a bit louder as Laura listened to her turn on the tap water, "I'm not even tired." A few seconds later, Laura could hear her brushing her teeth, and groaned.

"School doesn't start for another two weeks," she called as she headed towards her own room, walking down the hall and pausing at the end of it, with her hand on the doorknob of her bedroom door. "Peter and Derek are coming to pick you up on Friday."

She heard Cora spit in the sink, and in an instant she was standing in the hallway, her toothbrush in her hand, with a drip of spit on her chin while she scowled at her older sister. "Today's Wednesday, Laura."

Laura shrugged, turned, and went into her room. Before closing the door, she said, as Cora meandered back into the bathroom, "Then you should start packing. Trust me, Cora - it won't be as bad as you think."

No, Cora agreed with her completely on that one, as she rinsed out her mouth, and then used a washcloth to cleanse her face.

It was probably going to be _worse_ than she expected.


	2. Chapter I

Cora glared at the building in front of her, her arms crossed tightly over her chest while she stood still. Kids moved around her towards the front entrance of the building, most ignoring her brooding presence, but the occasional few cast her suspicious or curious glances, because even it was expected to have new kids at the beginning of their school year, new students in Beacon Hills weren't really common.

She had her backpack slung over her shoulder, with her schedule crumpled into a ball in one hand, and her clothes were beyond what was normally acceptable for kids (normally boys) her age. She'd gotten dressed around three in the morning because (no surprise) she hadn't been able to sleep; the sleeping pills Laura had given her before Peter and Derek had come to picker her up in the Camaro hadn't worked. Nothing ever worked. It was like Cora was cursed to live with sleepless nights and cat naps during the day when she couldn't stand to keep her eyes open any longer.

"Hey!"

Cora turned her head, hearing the obnoxiously loud shout from somewhere behind her, and she spotted an odd-looking group of kids looking around as if they'd lost something. She shook her head, thinking that it was far too early in the morning for anyone to be shouting (even though she hadn't slept at all until five-thirty had rolled around, and then at six-fifteen Peter had taken great enjoyment out of making it his duty to wake her up with a smirk on his face while announcing oh-so-sweetly that if she didn't get up soon she would be walking to school).

"Has anyone seen a girl, probably dark and broody, most likely just as dark and broody as her older brother - _hey_! - "

Cora turned around to see a boy rubbing his left side while a girl next to him, with strawberry-blond hair and an incredulous look on her pretty face.

The boy who'd been shouting sent her a scowl and opened his mouth when his head snapped to her, and her grinned. "Hey, dark and broody!"

Cora blinked, and realized that the group of people were walking in her direction. Quickly, she looked around, and realized that no one else looked nearly as sulky and _broody_ as she was (she already wanted to punch that lanky boy in the face for calling her _broody_) and she sighed.

_This_, she suspected, must be the group the group of friends Derek had. That Laura wanted her to bond with. That Peter wanted her to hang out with so he could get her sulking ass out of the house for more than the time school allowed him to be by himself.

"Cora Hale," the lanky boy grinned at her, and he stepped out of the small glob of people around him to bow deeply, his arms making sweeping gestures as he stood up straight.

Cora narrowed her eyes at him, and he took a tiny step back.

"Dark and broody Hale, it's nice to meet you," he said, his grin cheeky.

_And this_, Cora thought, _must be that hyperactive ADHD kid that Peter teases Derek about all the time when._

Despite this suspicion, Cora opened her mouth to threaten his existence when the strawberry-blond haired girl stepped forward, but not before swatting the boy over the head with her hand, earning a snicker from the brunette girl next to her.

"Sorry he had to be the first one you met here at Beacon Hills," the girl said, shooting a sickeningly sweet smile in the boy's direction (to which he promptly glared at in reply). "That's Stiles. I'm Lydia. And these people - well, they're not - "

"_Lydia_."

Cora looked between the group of friends, who all seemed to be looking at her like they knew something she didn't. Well, these people certainly _seemed_ to be Derek's friends, although the Hale currently in high school couldn't come up with a reason for him to want to hang out with this. . . seemingly _odd_ group of kids.

The girl called Lydia whipped her head around to see the brunette girl giving her a pointed look and a small, soft smile.

She turned to Cora and her smile became a little bit wider.

"I'm Allison, and this is Isaac and Scott. I think I saw Jackson and Danny around here somewhere - "

"No! No Jackson!" The boy called Stiles - _What the hell kind of name is Stiles? _- started flailing his arms wildly, and Cora decided to take a step back. This kid was more than bit odd. But he seemed to fit in to this group, because Cora could have _sworn_ that she'd never seen a group of kids like this before. _Anywhere_.

"No, Jackson's an idiot who's hoity-toity and that stupid car her drives needs a brand new dent in it- "

"_Stiles_!" Lydia smacked his arm, and he glowered at her.

"What? I wasn't being totally serious about the car thing, although I'd love to be the one to give it a new decoration - "

"Dude." Stiles looked over to the boy Cora presumed to the be the one the girl Allison called Scott, who was discreetly shaking his head at his friend. "Stop it."

This Stiles kid obviously had a tendency to ramble.

It made her want to investigate the reason why Peter had harassed Derek about this talkative, babbling kid ever since she'd gotten into the car with them so they could be on their way to Beacon Hills.

The one named Isaac stepped forward and gave her a wry smile. Cora merely raised an eyebrow. "Come on, school's going to be great if you stick with us - "

"And you don't have a choice," Stiles cut in, grinning like an idiot, and it made her even more suspicious. "Because since you're Derek's little sister we're not allowing you to go anywhere without us. It's one of the rules."

Cora blinked slowly, once, twice, and then she shook her head. "Rules?" she asked.

"Yeah. We're supposed to keep you out of trouble," Stiles said, a little too brightly for her liking. "And awake, apparently. What's that all about? Derek never - "

"_Shut up_, Stilinski," Lydia hissed. He merely made a face at her before turning his attention back on Cora, who was still wondering whether or not she should even be talking to these people.

Before she could open her mouth and ask any questions (because now she was _feeling_ dark and _broody_, thanks to this Stiles kid), Allison took her arm and began dragging her away from Stiles, the rest of the group following her, while he waved his arms at her in protest.

"I wasn't done!"

"You'll get your chance later," Isaac called over his shoulder, grinning as he did so.

Cora was turned around, away from Stiles, but not before she saw him pout and declare, looking indignant (and at that moment she decided that she was going to help her uncle harass Derek about this kid when she found out _why_ he harassed him in the first place) as he shouted afterwards, watching them drag Cora away, "you won't keep that promise, Lahey - you and that stupid scarf of yours!"


	3. Chapter II

**This story shouldn't be all that long; it's an experiment, for me. I'll shuddap now and letcha get on with the chapter. Cheers.**

* * *

Cora's first day at Beacon Hills High School was more than a bit odd. High school was supposed to be boring. It wasn't supposed to be odd, or more than a bit odd. It was supposed to be . . . well, like she'd expected it to be.

The first half of her day had been spent with Lydia, Allison, and a nice guy named Danny in her classes, before lunch. She'd learned in that (seemingly _long_) amount of time that Lydia was a genius, Danny's boyfriend Ethan liked to cut into class and embarrass him for no reason at all other than to see the taller boy flustered, Allison was nice and kind and Isaac was nice enough to check up on her for some reason every so often (Lydia said she'd explain later sometime).

She'd encountered both Aiden and Ethan in between classes, mainly because Lydia snarked off to the straight twin (though Cora didn't know why yet) and Danny was usually snagged by Ethan and dragged away, and usually ended up late to class because of that boy.

Cora didn't need Lydia to explain _that_ to her. It amused her, though, how these people were connected. They weren't all friends if they were gathered together, bu they were the boyfriends or girlfriends of friends, and friend of friends - and that sort of confused her, because she'd never seen any group quite like this, so mismatched and _odd_.

* * *

At lunch, she found herself sitting with Stiles, a girl named Erica, Scott, Danny, and Aiden. The others, including some she hadn't met until before lunch started (because apparently her older brother had deemed it necessary for her to know everyone that _he_ somehow knew), had dragged a table over to their own, combining the two, making Cora feel like she'd suddenly been introduced into some huge, dysfunctional-yet-functioning family that Derek and Peter had failed to mention over the phone the day before they had come to take her away from Laura - who _still_ hadn't looked the least bit sorry for upsetting the blandness in her little sister's life.

Cora found that she had no idea what to do while she ate her curly fries, slowly, as she watched the entire table of kids eat, laugh at each other, snark off to each other, be mean to each other, and - and just _be_ together. It was really weird, though, watching Stiles mouth off to the boy named Jackson with curly fries stuffed into his mouth, and watch Jackson, in return, mouth off right back while Lydia glared at him from time to time while chatting with Allison and Erica from their different points across the two tables.

Aiden kept smirking at Danny, who Ethan kept waggling his eyebrows at. It didn't take long to understand whose boyfriend was whose and whose girlfriend was whose. After ten minutes of nibbling at her burger, finishing off her fries (Stiles kept reaching over and grabbing one off her plate tell she slapped his hand away and got the last one), and remaining quiet, she was both thoroughly amused and trying to keep her eyes open.

Being an insomniac was a drag. It meant that she was awake all night and then sleepy throughout the afternoon. It meant that in the hours between dusk and dawn, she was restless, and her body and mind both refused to rest - even if she had been taking sleeping pills since she was twelve. And now she was worrying about face-planting to her applesauce because she was just _so damn tired_.

She felt something warm hit her in the face, and she blinked, realizing she nearly _had _face-planted into her applesauce. She realized that Stiles had thrown a curly fry at her, and she shook her head slightly, holding back a yawn. From the look Erica was giving him, Cora guess that it had been her fry that he'd stolen.

"Sleepy-dark-and-broody-sleeping-beauty, are we _that_ boring?" he was giving her puppy-dog eyes accompanied with a snarky grin. It was an odd combination, one that would probably make Derek as annoyed as she felt right now.

_But judging by the way Uncle Peter harasses Derek it probably doesn't annoy him _that_ much, _Cora thought while she snorted at Stiles' comment.

"You're not boring, you just never shut up," Cora muttered, and, at hearing her say this, Jackson guffaws. Stiles shoots him a dirty look but Isaac cut in before he could say anything else.

"You'll get used to him - and everything else around here. Don't worry, you're just like Derek. You'll tune him out - hey!"

Stiles had stolen another fry (but from Scott, this time) and had tossed it at Isaac, hitting him square in the forehead, to which he scowled and sat back in his chair at. She heard a scoff - it was from either Erica or Lydia; she couldn't tell - but she ignored it, instead of fixing Stiles with one very icy glare that he shrank back a bit from.

"So how is it that _you_ all know my brother?"

The coloring in Stiles' cheeks was enough for Jackson to smirk at him, and then it was _his_ turn to hurl a fry at _him_ for a change. The twins both snickered at this.

Instead of Stiles answering, though, Scott did instead.

"We've known him - me and Stiles - since we were really small. We didn't get a long, at first, but Derek knows a few people, and people know each other if they know Derek - and it's all. . . well, we just are, whether he likes it or not."

Lydia smirked. "Has Peter been teasing your brother?" she asked, her eyes sliding over to Stiles, who seemed to slink lower in his chair as the seconds ticked by.

_Now I know why._

Cora shrugged, and merely watched on in amusement as the tables' attention was turned to Stiles for a brief few minutes of inside jokes, waggled eyebrows, and shared smirks, and then the attention was, afterwards, divided once again into how it had been before Cora had spoken.

* * *

After lunch, Cora learned that the later half of the day would be spent with Stiles, Ethan, Danny, and Jackson - and in seventh period, Lydia as well.

Classes weren't so bad. In fact, they seemed a bit more interesting than they had back in Los Angeles, but that was probably because she was going to a whole new school.

She found herself sitting near the group of people that Derek somehow knew, no matter where she went and which class she was in. Somehow, no matter how much she acted broody and dark (that description had apparently stuck ever since Stiles had called her that at lunch), they didn't leave her alone (which meant that they'd gotten used to Derek, which really _did_ mean that they were his friends, because only friends of Derek could only withstand the infamous Hale glare). In fifth, she found herself next to Danny, and next to him, was Ethan.

Ethan obviously liked to distract Danny while the boy-genius was trying to concentrate. It was actually amusing to watch . . . until she eventually folded her arms atop her desk and decided to let her had fall into the little wall her arms had made.

A few times, Ethan had thrown an eraser at her, to get her attention, and Danny had even prodded her with his sneaker. But she had remained asleep, till someone had slammed a textbook on her desk, and she had shot up, looking around wildly to see that there was a minute left of class, and Danny was laughing at her.

It took her a minute to realize that Ethan had been the one to wake her up, so she gave him one of her famous glares, promising him that the next time he did that she would attempt to murder him - but he only got to his feet, grabbed Danny's arm, and dragged the flustered boy out of the class seconds before the bell rang.

Her broody, dark mood was forgotten momentarily as a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, hearing Danny's faint, yet only halfhearted protests as the door shut behind the to, and suddenly, they were cut off, and then Cora snickered to herself, getting her things together before heading off to class.

Jackson was sort of an asshole. Several times in sixth she'd had to to threaten him in order to get him to stop insulting people. After a while, she just ended up falling asleep in class again - and this time, Boyd had been the one to wake her up, though she hadn't really remembered having sixth with him.

In seventh, she'd just ignored everyone and had slept her way through the entire time. The teachers, apparently, either never saw her, or never cared that she slept during her time for learning.

But the teacher was the one to wake her up, since Lydia had pulled Jackson out of class the moment the bell had rung and everyone else had filed out as fast as possible. The teacher had decided not to punish her - but had given her a warning.

Cora hadn't even bothered trying to explain the fact that she had a very good reason for falling asleep in class. Instead, she just got her things and left to go to her locker.

She was looking forward to some peace an quiet in her new home - only after, though, she was done harassing her older brother with her uncle about the ADHD kid who'd she'd seen racing down the halls and babbling about nothing all day long.

It was obvious to Cora, and everyone else, that Stiles _really_ liked Derek. And for some reason, that made the first day of school a lot more interesting than she'd thought it would be.


	4. Chapter III

Unfortunately for Cora, Derek was late, after school - because he'd said he'd pick her right up from school, or Cora would expect to see Peter to come pick her up. She didn't trust Peter to be on time, or come at all, so waiting for her older brother was the only thing she could do.

She was standing out front, with her arms crossed over her chest. Standing as still as a statue and glaring icily straight in front of her, she waited to see the Camaro slide gracefully into the parking lot and pause long enough so she could make a run for it and go to the safe haven that was her room.

As soon as she was done interrogating her brother about the blushing, babbling, ADHD-controlled Stilinski boy. She'd only heard _"shut up." _from Derek and taunting from Peter late in the night, but she'd never actually _seen_ his reaction towards the mentioning of Stiles. She suddenly wanted to. After all, it was her duty as his baby sister to tease him about - well, about whatever the hell was going on with him and that Stilinski kid.

She felt someone poke her shoulder and she turned her head to see that Scott was standing next to her, with Isaac's arm slung about his shoulders. Cora wanted to roll her eyes at the public displays of affection this school obviously didn't have a problem (they'd been ogling each other for a while - and her suspicions about one liking the other, or both liking each other - it was kind of hard to tell sometimes - had been confirmed when Lydia had explained that Isaac was pretty much living with Scott) with. It was annoying, amusing, and revolting all at once. Her high school had been boring. Why did this have to be amusing and eventful?

Cora figured that Laura had planned to ruin the bland normalcy her little sister had gotten figured out at the tiny, strict little high school she'd gone to for her freshman year.

She raised an eyebrow at the boys, who were grinning from ear to ear at her. "So how did you like your first day of school?"

"She wouldn't - sleeping-dark-and-broody here slept through her afternoon classes, or so I hear."

Cora frowned, and whipped her head around to see that Stiles was giving her a grin. She glared, and leaned forward, and he stumbled backwards, his grin fading as his arms flailed a bit so he wouldn't fall on his ass. She thought it was funny. But she didn't laugh; she only continued to glare at him.

"What? If you don't like the name I can came up with something else, because in all honesty, all you Hales are either grumpy some parts of the day, moody all the time, broody for a better part of the week - or you're Peter. He's sassy. And creepy." Stiles made a face. "I don't like your uncle. He's too sassy. In fact, he's sassier than - "

"Hey, isn't that Derek?" Scott interrupted loudly, and Cora turned to see that, yes, it was her brother's car. She could see him leaning towards the passenger seat, giving her an expectant look as he honked the horn at her.

Cora suddenly grinned, and turned to look at Stiles. He paled a little, and then started to scramble away from her, and before she could really think through on what she was doing, her arm shot out, her fingers wrapped around his wrist, and yanked him towards the car.

"Where are you - " his eyes widened with horror, and he tried to wriggle out of her grasp, but she just kept walking. "Scott! Help me! I pissed off a Hale that's not Derek or that creepy sassy uncle of his! Help!"

She heard laughter erupt from Isaac and Scott (and she thought she heard a few snickers here and there as the parking lot came closer and closer, probably from Aiden and Ethan) but she ignored them and soon she was shoving Stiles into the front passenger seat of the car before climbing into the back.

Derek started to drive, and he looking in the rear view mirror suspiciously at his sister, whose grin had turned sinister.

It took her a moment to realize that Peter was sitting next to her, and her grin grew a little wider. Stiles twisted around in his seat to glare at her, but when his eyes landed on Peter, he scrambled out of his seat, and pressed himself up against the dash and his (locked) car door. "C-creepy uncle, right - broody-moody-sleeping-beauties, yeah, I'm dead - "

Derek gave him a look, and Stiles scowled at him in return before calming down a bit, and sitting himself down. Cora leaned forward and looked over his shoulder, unsure of what Derek (who looked more than uncomfortable with both his little sister and uncle grinning in the back seat) was going to do now that he had the ADHD Stilinski kid in the Camaro with him, and saw Stiles finish sending a text to Scott before shoving his phone back into his pocket before he started to babble about - well, about nothing and everything.

Cora leaned back in her seat, content with the fact that she was getting back at Derek for agreeing with Laura that she needed to move (but this place was beginning to grow on her, and she wasn't about to complain about her entire day; it hadn't been all that bad).

The text had read:

**_I'm going to kill you and Isaac for letting me get dragged off into the Hale family vehicle._**

****She couldn't wait to see what happened next.


	5. The End

**Thanks for taking the time to read this really crappy story. Cheers!**

* * *

Derek had decided that he would drop the Stilinski kid off at his house instead of taking him anywhere with the Hales who were still grinning int he back seat. Much to Peter's disappointment, and to Stiles (and probably Derek's own) relief.

Peter had been making snide, sassy, and positively provocative remarks and little comments that had Derek clenching his teeth and Stiles scrambling at the car door, trying to unlock it, but whenever he tried to get it open so he could dart out into traffic and escape Cora's laughter and Peter's waggling eyebrows in the rear view mirror.

Eventually, Stiles managed to get out of the car, flailing and stumbling as he headed towards his front door. Peter snickered and called out a mocking farewell as the boy slammed the door to his house, and then went to the front window, making shooing motions with his hands while glaring angrily at the Camaro's occupants as it abruptly left the curb in front of Stiles' house.

Cora was the first to speak.

"You really like him, don't you, Derek." She smirked, from ear to ear, and Derek grunted in response.

"He does, doesn't he?" Cora turned to her uncle with an eyebrow raised.

Peter snorted. "Of course he does. He's liked that hyperactive nutcase since he met the boy when he was nine."

"Do not."

Derek's tone would sound like a conversation-ender to anyone else - except his family, except Scott and Isaac and possibly Lydia because Lydia _knew_ things, apparently, (and Danny, from what Cora's heard, because his gaydar is _really_ good at finding out things people don't want found out about them) and Peter laughed at this.

"See?" he turned to Cora, giving her a smug look. "See? He likes him - he likes him a lot. He just doesn't see it, the idiot."

"I'm not an idiot."

"Uncle Peter says you are."

Derek glared at her from where he sat in the driver's seat.

The rest of the way home was spent teasing him.

_I can definitely get used to living here, _Cora thought, grinning from ear to ear as Peter began his tirade of making fun of his nephew - and went so far as to add that he was tempted to invite Talia and Laura to meet his little crush.

And then Derek threatened to tear his neck out.

To which Peter replied, "you can try - but first the family has to meet your boyfriend."

And then her uncle began to tease him again.

_I think between throwing food at the Stilinski kid and making fun of the fact that he likes my brother, this place won't be so bad._


End file.
